Revista mexicana de biodiversidad ISSN: 1870-3453 ISSN: 2007-8706 Instituto de Biología Rangel-Sánchez, Laura; Nava-Bolaños, Angela; Palacino-Rodríguez, Fredy; Córdoba-Aguilar, Alex Estimating distribution area in six Argia damselflies (Insecta: Odonata: Coenagrionidae) including A. garrisoni, a threatened species Revista mexicana de biodiversidad, vol. 89, no. 3, 2018, pp. 921-926 Instituto de Biología DOI: 10.22201/ib.20078706e.2018.3.2469 Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=42559285025 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System Redalyc More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 89 (2018): 921 - 926 Conservation Estimating distribution area in six Argia damselflies (Insecta: Odonata: Coenagrionidae) including A. garrisoni, a threatened species Estimando el área de distribución de seis caballitos del diablo del género Argia (Insecta: Odonata: Coenagrionidae) incluyendo A. garrisoni, una especie amenazada Laura Rangel-Sánchez a, Angela Nava-Bolaños b, *, Fredy Palacino-Rodríguez a, c, Alex Córdoba-Aguilar b, a Grupo de Investigación en Odonatos de Colombia-Grupo de Investigación en Biología, Departamento de Biología, Universidad El Bosque, Av. Cra 9 No. 131A-02 Bogotá, Colombia b Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado postal 70-275, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Coyoacán, México City, Mexico c Centro de Investigación en Acarología, Calle 152B # 55-45, Bogotá, Colombia * Corresponding author: [email protected] (A. Nava-Bolaños) Received: 17 September 2017; accepted: 7 March 2018 Abstract Damselflies and dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata) are currently facing a number of threats. One tool to provide a straightforward assessment of risk is distribution area. Here we have used ecological niche modeling to estimate distribution range for 6 species of Argia damselflies distributed in North America: A. cuprea, A. funcki, A. garrisoni, A. harknessi, A. munda, and A. rhoadsi. These species are not included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, except for A. garrisoni which has been categorized as Least Concern. Our results indicated large distribution areas for all species, except for A. garrisoni, (8,038 km2 after a refinement analysis looking for suitable habitat). Large distribution can be explained by similar niche properties shared by all study species. This is not the case for A. garrisoni whose situation seems worrying. This species was found in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí in 1999 and there have been no further observations so it deserves further inspection to see whether populations are at risk. In the meantime, and according to the IUCN criteria, A. garrisoni should be placed under a vulnerable category. Keywords: Distribution range; Ecological niche modeling; Damselflies; IUCN Resumen Los caballitos del diablo y las libélulas (Insecta: Odonata) enfrentan varias amenazas. Una herramienta para evaluar riesgo, es el área de distribución. Usamos el modelado de nicho ecológico para estimar el rango de distribución de 6 especies de caballitos del diablo del género Argia, en Norte América: A. cuprea, A. funcki, A. garrisoni, A. harknessi, A. munda y A. rhoadsi. Estas especies no están incluidas en la Lista Roja de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN), excepto A. garrisoni que se categorizó como de preocupación menor (“least concern”). Nuestros resultados indicaron distribuciones amplias para todas las especies, excepto A. garrisoni (8,038 ISSN versión electrónica: 2007-8706; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Biología. Open Access bajo la licencia CC BY-NC-ND (4.0) https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2018.3.2469 922 L. Rangel-Sánchez et al. / Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 89 (2018): 921 - 926 https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2018.3.2469 km2 después de un análisis refinado de hábitat disponible). Una distribución amplia puede explicarse por propiedades de nicho similares en todas las especies. Este no es el caso para A. garrisoni cuya situación es preocupante. Esta especie se encontró en el estado mexicano de San Luis Potosí en 1999 y no se ha recolectado desde entonces por lo que debería buscarse para saber si sus poblaciones están en riesgo. Mientras tanto, y de acuerdo a los criterios de la UICN, A. garrisoni debería ser incluida en la categoría de vulnerable. Palabras clave: Rango de distribución; Modelado de nicho ecológico; Caballitos del diablo; UICN Introduction literature records, confirmed records in OdonataCentral (http://www.odonatacentral.org), Conabio records (www. The biodiversity crisis that has been documented in conabio.gob.mx), GBIF records (www.gbif.org), and detail for several taxa (Dirzo et al., 2014), includes insects published papers, thesis and data provided by experts in of the order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) with odonates. All data were checked carefully for geographic 1 in 10 odonate species being threatened (Clausnitzer et accuracy which, when in doubt, included asking specialists al., 2009). This despite their fairly high dispersal ability (e.g., Rosser Garrison). Notice that most records were and flexibility to occupy different habitats (Stoks & gathered from OdonataCentral, which is a repository of Córdoba-Aguilar, 2012). Similar to other aquatic insects, odonate record information. We are confident that the deforestation and susceptibility of anthropogenic change biases of identification should be minimal because these for their freshwater habitats (especially lentic waters; data were provided by experts for these animals. Still, we Clausnitzer et al., 2009) seem major drivers underlying limited our analyses to the 6 species indicated above as threat (Dijsktra et al., 2014). these were the ones we were fully confident in regards to Argia damselflies are a highly speciose genus with the quality of their records. up to 144 species (Caesar & Wenzel, 2009; Garrison, Distribution models were built only for species with 1994), with a large occurrence throughout the American more than 30 localities. Thus, the final data set included continent. Some generalities of their ecology are that they 1585 unique presences of the 6 species, which were use both lentic and lotic freshwaters, and occur in different predominantly adult specimens: 759 records for A. cuprea, habitats that comprise tropical and non-tropical areas 261 for A. funcki, 255 for A. garrisoni, 185 for A. harknessi, (Garrison, 1994). Argia species are mostly small-sized 86 for A. munda and 39 for A. rhoadsi. Although these odonates with males of some species being either territorial records spanned the last 40 years, most came from the last (Guillermo-Ferreira & Del Claro, 2012) or nonterritorial 15 years. The database is available upon request. (Sánchez-Guillén et al., 2014). The International Union We used the WorldClim 1.4 (www.worldclim.org) data for Conservation of Nature (from now on, IUCN) has set (Hijmans et al., 2005) at 0.041666669 degrees (or 5 km) incorporated 36 species of Argia in the Red List, of which of resolution to set predicting bioclimatic variables for our only A. sabino appears threatened (“vulnerable” category; models. To establish a set of uncorrelated climatic variables, IUCN, 2017). This reduced number implies that further we intersected the variables with target group points, and efforts are badly needed to uncover more Argia species. with 10,000 points randomly selected in the extension of One criteria to be included as part of IUCN assessment is the study area (M). We eliminated some variables with an the extent of occurrence (criterion B; IUCN, 2017) which exploratory data analysis of contribution of variables using can be gathered using ecological niche models (Guisan & jackknife and Pearson correlation analyses (i.e., any value Zimmermann, 2000; Gouveia et al., 2011). > 0.7). Thus, we selected variables with low correlation With the aim of providing biological information of and high contribution to reduce the parametrization of the odonates that have not been included in the IUCN Red models. After this, the final data set included uncorrelated List, in this work we have assessed the distribution area variables which had more biological importance for Argia of 6 Argia species: Argia cuprea (Hagen, 1861), A. funcki species, and more contribution according to the jackknife (Selys, 1854), A. garrisoni Daigle, 1991, A. harknessi analysis. Such variables were: mean diurnal temperature Calvert, 1899, A. munda Calvert, 1902, and A. rhoadsi range (bio 02), temperature seasonality (bio 04), mean Calvert, 1902. Except for A. garrisoni which appears as temperature of warmest quarter (bio 10), precipitation of least concern (IUCN, 2017), the remaining 5 species have wettest month (bio 13), precipitation of driest month (bio not been assessed. 14), and precipitation seasonality (bio 15). Our study area included North America where our study species occur. Materials and methods Our study area was North and Central America where members of the genus Argia occur (Caesar & Wenzel, Presences of the 6 Argia species were compiled from 2009; Garrison, 1994), covering land between the latitudes L. Rangel-Sánchez et al. / Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad